Battle of Brandy Station

St. James Episcopal Church, a two-story brick chapel founded in 1840 by Richard H. Cunningham and his neighbors in northeastern Culpepper County, was built with the assistance of slave labor, and African Americans regularly attended services there, sitting in the gallery. On the morning of June 9, 1863, Union cavalry under Gen. John Buford crossed the Rappahannock River at Beverly's Ford, about two miles away, and opened the Battle of Brandy Station. Buford's horsemen encountered Confederate pickets and batteries from the Stuart Horse Artillery under Maj. Robert Beckham, and Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones, whose troopers camped in the area, responded to the threat. Brutal fighting took place along Beverly's Ford Road before the Confederates eventually fell back to a position around St. James Church, where Beckham placed his guns on the ridge and extended his line to Beverly's Ford Road. The Confederates held this position until later in the day, when Federal cavalry under Gen. David Gregg threatened their rear at Fleetwood Hill. As the battle developed, Gen. James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart left his headquarters on Fleetwood Hill to oversee the fighting at St. James Church. During the winter encampment, Lt. Louis Carpenter of the 6th U.S. Cavalry sketched St. James Church, and his regiment later dismantled the building and used its bricks to construct chimneys for their winter huts. After the war, the St. James congregation moved from its former site to the hamlet of Brandy Station and established Christ Episcopal Church in 1869.

Virginia · United States