Lee's Last Move North: The Bristoe Station Campaign of 1863

After the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George G. Meade settled in central Virginia on opposite sides of the Rapidan River. As both armies sent reinforcements to northern Georgia to influence the war in the western theatre, Lee detached Lt. Gen. James Longstreet with most of his corps and Meade sent the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps in response. By October, Lee believed he needed to exploit Meade's reduced numbers and planned an offensive campaign he hoped would repeat his success at Second Manassas in August 1862. On October 9, 1863, Lee ordered his army across the Rapidan near Orange, Virginia, in a series of flanking maneuvers intended to win a victory over the Union army, but Meade maneuvered quickly enough to avoid the trap and aimed to reach the protection of Centreville heights before Lee could intercept him. After hard marching and fighting at James City, Brandy Station, Jeffersonton, and Auburn, the lead elements of Lee's army caught up to Meade at Bristoe Station. On October 14, 1863, Lee faced his last chance to attack and gain an advantage over the larger Union army before it escaped northward to Centreville, and this became his major offensive campaign of the war.

Linton Hall, Virginia · United States