Battle of Buckland Mills

On October 19, 1863, 12,000 Confederate and Union cavalry clashed at Buckland. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, screening the Confederate withdrawal following the Battle of Bristoe Station, blocked the advance of Union Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry division. Initially occupying this position, Gen. George A. Custer's brigade forced Stuart's retreat westward and Gen. Henry E. Davies' brigade gave chase. Early in the afternoon, as Custer's men rested at Buckland, Confederate Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's division suddenly attacked from the south, pushing Custer back across the Broad Run bridge and separating his brigade from Davies at New Baltimore. Davies broke off pursuit of Stuart who immediately counterattacked, routing the Federals along the Warrenton Turnpike. The Confederates lost about 50 men, the Federals about 260, mostly prisoners in what the Confederates jubilantly called the “Buckland Races.” Stuart termed the Union rout “the most complete that any cavalry…suffered during this war” while Custer noted the date as “the most disastrous this division ever passed through.”

Virginia · United States