Civil War cavalry battles could be huge, shifting engagements spread across miles of countryside, and the Battle of Brandy Station began at Kelly’s Ford. On the morning of June 9, 1863, two Union cavalry divisions and an infantry brigade under Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg crossed the Rappahannock River there, a force of about 6,000 men and 18 cannon that made up half of an 11,000-man Union effort searching for Confederates in the Culpeper area. Another Union column under Brig. Gen. John Buford had crossed earlier that morning at Beverly Ford to the north, and the two wings planned to meet at Brandy Station before advancing on Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry. Gregg met little resistance at the ford, but delays quickly disrupted his schedule when the Second Cavalry Division under Col. Alfred Duffie’ got lost and arrived late. While waiting for Duffie and hearing artillery fire from Buford’s fighting at Beverly Ford, Gregg lost hours. After Duffie’s troops appeared, Gregg sent them southwest across Mountain Run toward Stevensburg with orders to continue on to Brandy Station. Gregg then found the direct road to Brandy blocked by a small brigade of North Carolina cavalry led by Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson, ordered his attached infantry brigade to push them back, and took his Third Cavalry Division along Duffie’s route before turning north toward Brandy Station in hopes of reaching the fighting in time to help Buford.
