The Battle of Brandy Station

At the southern part of Fleetwood Hill, where the old Carolina Road crossed some of the highest ground in the area, Maj. Gen. James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart, commander of Robert E. Lee's cavalry, pitched his headquarters tents on the evening of June 8, 1863, near the Henry Miller House known as Fleetwood. Confederates called the coming fight the Battle of Fleetwood Hill. Stuart was surprised at first light on June 9 when word arrived that Federal forces had attacked his outposts at Beverly Ford. After sending his headquarters wagons to Culpeper Court House, he responded to Brig. Gen. John Buford's Union attack and formed a strong line near St. James Church that by late morning began pushing the Federals back. About 11 a.m., however, a second Union division of 2,200 men under Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg, having crossed the river at Kelly's Ford with little opposition, appeared in Stuart's rear. A Confederate staff officer quickly opened fire with a single cannon from the crest of Fleetwood Hill on Federal troopers coming out of Brandy Station, while couriers alerted Stuart a mile away near St. James Church. Stuart then pulled regiments from that area and sent them racing to Fleetwood Hill, where his men reached the crest before Gregg's force and struck Col. Percy Wyndham's Union cavalry brigade hard, blunting the first Federal attack.

Virginia · United States