This month is also the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Brandy Station, fought on June 9, 1863. Union troopers, like this unidentified horseman in front of his camp of Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton’s Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac inaugurated the Gettysburg Campaign when they splashed across the Rappahannock River and surprised Maj. Gen. Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry Division of the Army of Northern Virginia. More than 20,000 horsemen fought in the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry fight of the Civil War. Hooves thundered, cannons boomed and sabers clashed as the Federals tried to capture the high ground of Fleetwood Hill and Confederate countercharges swept across the fields.
Stuart’s embattled horsemen managed to win the day and force the Northerners back across the river, helped tremendously by the fire of their horse artillery. The Rebel gunners had “scarcely a round of ammunition left,” remembered Stuart. The Federals lost 866 men at Brandy Station, while the Confederates suffered 433 losses.
The Union horsemen had proven themselves a capable fighting force at Brandy Station, but Stuart’s desperate defense kept the Northerners from discovering that Robert E. Lee’s infantry was beginning the march that would reach Pennsylvania.
Confederate commander Jeb Stuart took heat for being surprised at Brandy Station. “If Gen. Stuart is to be the eyes and ears of the army we advise him to see more, and be seen less….Gen. Stuart has suffered no little in public estimation by the late enterprises of the enemy,” wrote the Richmond Enquirer on June 12, 1863. H.B. McClellan, a member of Jeb Stuart’s staff, famously said that Brandy Station “made the Federal cavalry,” because the Yankee troopers fought so well.
historynet magazines
Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people, the wars, and the events that shaped America and the world.
