The Great Cavalry Battle of Brandy Station, 9 June 1863

The Great Cavalry Battle of Brandy Station, 9 June 1863 PDF Author: Heros von Borcke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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The Great Cavalry Battle of Brandy Station, 9 June 1863

The Great Cavalry Battle of Brandy Station, 9 June 1863 PDF Author: Heros von Borcke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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The Battle of Brandy Station

The Battle of Brandy Station PDF Author: Eric J Wittenberg
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614230293
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
This Civil War history and guide examines a major turning point in cavalry combat and includes a GPS guided tour of the battlefield. Just before dawn on June 9, 1863, Union soldiers materialized from a thick fog near the banks of Virginia's Rappahannock River to ambush sleeping Confederates. The ensuing struggle, which lasted throughout the day, was to be known as the Battle of Brandy Station—the largest cavalry battle ever fought on North American soil. These events marked a major turning point in the Civil War: the waning era of Confederate cavalry dominance in the East gave way to a confident and powerful Union mounted arm. Historian Eric J. Wittenberg meticulously captures the drama and significance of these events in this fascinating volume. The GPS guided tour of the battlefield is supplemented with illustrations and maps by master cartographer Steven Stanley.

Brandy Station, Virginia, June 9, 1863

Brandy Station, Virginia, June 9, 1863 PDF Author: Joseph W. McKinney
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
"This volume details the contributions of cavalry units during the spring campaign of 1863. Although the work discusses early encounters such as the Battle of Chancellorsville, the main focus is the Battle of Brandy Station, which marked the opening of the Gettysburg campaign and Lee's last offensive into the North"--Provided by publisher.

Clash of Cavalry

Clash of Cavalry PDF Author: Fairfax Downey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Brandy Station (Va.), Battle of, 1863
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Out Flew the Sabres

Out Flew the Sabres PDF Author: Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 161121257X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
One day. Fourteen hours. Twelve thousand Union cavalrymen against 9,000 of their Confederate counterparts—with three thousand Union infantry thrown in for good measure. Amidst the thunder of hooves and the clashing of sabers, they slugged it out across the hills and dales of Culpepper County, Virginia. And it escalated into the largest cavalry battle ever fought on the North American continent. Fleetwood Hill at Brandy Station was the site of four major cavalry battles during the course of the Civil War, but none was more important than the one fought on June 9, 1863. That clash turned out to be the opening engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign—and the one-day delay it engendered may very well have impacted the outcome of the entire campaign. The tale includes a veritable who’s-who of cavalry all-stars in the East: Jeb Stuart, Wade Hampton, John Buford, and George Armstrong Custer. Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate commander, saw his son, William H. F. Lee, being carried off the battlefield, severely wounded. Both sides suffered heavy losses. But for the Federal cavalry, the battle was also a watershed event. After Brandy Station, never again would they hear the mocking cry, “Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?” In Out Flew the Sabers: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863—The Opening Engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign, Civil War historians Eric J. Wittenberg and Daniel T. Davis have written the latest entry in Savas Beatie’s critically acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.

The Battle of Brandy Station

The Battle of Brandy Station PDF Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985024625
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "One result of incalculable importance certainly did follow this battle, - it made the Federal cavalry. Up to that time confessedly inferior to the Southern horsemen, they gained on this day that confidence in themselves and in their commanders which enabled them to contest so fiercely the subsequent battle-fields of June, July, and October." - Major Henry B. McClellan, JEB Stuart's adjutant general In early June 1863, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia occupied Culpeper, Virginia, and after their victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville against armies twice their size, the Confederate troops felt invincible and anxious to carry the war north into Pennsylvania. One of the proudest was iconic cavalry leader JEB Stuart, who had filled in admirably for the mortally wounded Stonewall Jackson the previous month at Chancellorsville. Back in command of the cavalry, Stuart bivouacked his men near the Rappahannock River, screening the Confederate army against surprise Union attacks. Buoyed by his recent successes, Stuart held a field review on June 5, but when Lee couldn't attend that one, he held another one in Lee's presence on June 8. During that one, the Confederates paraded nearly 9,000 mounted troops and four batteries of horse artillery for review, which included mock battles near Brandy Station. Some of the cavalrymen and newspaper reporters at the scene complained that all Stuart was doing was "feeding his ego and exhausting the horses," and he was referred to as a "headline-hunting show-off." Meanwhile, Union Army of the Potomac commander Joseph Hooker interpreted Stuart's presence around Culpeper as a precursor to a raid on his army's supply lines. In response, he ordered his cavalry commander, Maj. General Alfred Pleasonton, to take a combined force of 8,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry on a raid to "disperse and destroy" the 9,500 Confederates. Crossing the Rappahannock River in two columns on June 9, 1863 at Beverly's Ford and Kelly's Ford, the first infantry unit caught Stuart completely off guard, and the second surprised him yet again. In addition to being the largest cavalry battle of the war, the chaos and confusion that ensued across the battlefield also made Brandy Station unique in that most of the fighting was done while mounted and using sabers. One account of the battle noted, "Of the bodies that littered the field that day, the vast majority were found to have perished by the sword." After 10 hours of charges and countercharges that swept back and forth across Fleetwood Hill involving drawn sabers and revolvers, Pleasonton decided to withdraw his exhausted men across the Rappahannock River. Stuart immediately claimed a Confederate victory because his men had managed to hold the field and inflicted more casualties on the enemy while forcing Pleasonton to withdraw before locating Lee's infantry, but Stuart was trying to save face, and nobody else, including Lee, shared his view of the battle. The fact was that the Southern cavalry under Stuart had not detected the movement of two large columns of Union cavalry and had fallen prey to not one but two surprise attacks. Two days later, the Richmond Enquirer reported, "If Gen. Stuart is to be the eyes and ears of the army we advise him to see more, and be seen less. Gen. Stuart has suffered no little in public estimation by the late enterprises of the enemy." Lee was now painfully aware of the increased competency of the Union cavalry, as well as the decline of the seemingly once-invincible Southern mounted armed forces under Stuart. Moreover, Stuart was now smarting from the negative publicity and the hit his reputation had taken at Brandy Station, and it would go on to have an impact on the ensuing battle of Gettysburg.

Brandy Station 1863

Brandy Station 1863 PDF Author: Dan Beattie
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781846033049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The road to Gettysburg began at Brandy Station on June 9, 1863 during the American Civil War (1861-1865). However, the cavalry clash in Culpeper County, Virginia, counts for more than just the opening round of Lee's second invasion of the North. The battle showed both sides that the Federal cavalry had now come of age, that Blue and Gray horsemen were now equal in ability. Early in the morning on June 9, Pleasanton launched his men, split into two divisions, across the Rappahannock at Beverley's Ford to the north of Brandy Station and Kelly's Ford to the south. Stuart was caught completely unaware by these maneuvers and his lines and headquarters were nearly overrun until reinforcements helped to stabilize the situation. Following 12 hours of bitter fighting the Union forces withdrew back across the river, having matched the Confederate cavalry in skill and determination for the first time in the War between the States in what was the largest and most hotly contested clash of sabers in this long and bloody war. This book describes the battle with a step-by-step analysis of the proceedings, illustrated with detailed maps, birds-eye-views and full color battlescene artwork.

Brandy Station and the March to Gettysburg

Brandy Station and the March to Gettysburg PDF Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781978291539
Category : Brandy Station, Battle of, Brandy Station, Va., 1863
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting written by generals and soldiers on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Buoyed by his recent successes at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate cavalry commander JEB Stuart held a field review on June 5, but when Robert E. Lee couldn't attend that one, he held another one in Lee's presence on June 8. During that one, the Confederates paraded nearly 9,000 mounted troops and four batteries of horse artillery for review, which included mock battles near Brandy Station. Some of the cavalrymen and newspaper reporters at the scene complained that all Stuart was doing was "feeding his ego and exhausting the horses," and he was referred to as a "headline-hunting show-off." More importantly, Union Army of the Potomac commander Joseph Hooker interpreted Stuart's presence around Culpeper as a precursor to a raid on his army's supply lines. In response, he ordered his cavalry commander, Maj. General Alfred Pleasonton, to take a combined force of 8,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry on a raid to "disperse and destroy" the 9,500 Confederates. Crossing the Rappahannock River in two columns on June 9, 1863 at Beverly's Ford and Kelly's Ford, the first infantry unit caught Stuart completely off guard, and the second surprised him yet again. In addition to being the largest cavalry battle of the war, the chaos and confusion that ensued across the battlefield also made Brandy Station unique in that most of the fighting was done while mounted and using sabers. As Lee's army moved into Pennsylvania, Stuart's cavalry screened his movements, thereby engaging in the more traditional cavalry roles, but it's widely believed that he was still smarting over the results of June 9. As a result, many historians think it likely that he had already planned to remove the negative effect of Brandy Station by duplicating one of his now famous rides around the enemy army, much as he did to McClellan's Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. This time, however, as Lee began his march north through the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia, it is highly unlikely that is what he wanted or expected. To complicate matters even more, as Stuart set out on June 25 on what was probably a glory-seeking mission, he was unaware that his intended path was blocked by columns of Union infantry that would invariably force him to veer farther east than he or Lee had anticipated. Ultimately, his decision would prevent him from linking up with Ewell as ordered and deprive Lee of his primary cavalry force as he advanced deeper and deeper into unfamiliar enemy territory. According to Halsey Wigfall (son of Confederate States Senator Louis Wigfall) who was in Stuart's infantry, "Stuart and his cavalry left [Lee's] army on June 24 and did not contact [his] army again until the afternoon of July 2, the second day of the [Gettysburg] battle." As it would turn out, Lee's army inadvertently stumbled into Union cavalry and then the Union army at Gettysburg on the morning of July 1, 1863, unaware of the force in their front.From July 1-3, Lee's army tried everything in its power to decisively defeat George Meade's Union Army of the Potomac, unleashing ferocious assaults that inflicted nearly 50,000 casualties in all. Day 1 of the battle would have been one of the 25 biggest battles of the Civil War itself, and it ended with a tactical Confederate victory. But over the next two days, Lee would try and fail to dislodge the Union army with attacks on both of its flanks during the second day and Pickett's Charge on the third and final day. After the South had lost the war, the importance of Gettysburg as one of the "high tide" marks of the Confederacy became apparent to everyone, making the battle all the more important in the years after it had been fought.

Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain

Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain PDF Author: Robert K. Krick
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807853559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
At Cedar Mountain on August 9,1862, Stonewall Jackson exercised independent command of a campaign for the last time. Robert Krick untangles the myriad original accounts by participants on both sides of the battle to offer an illuminating portrait of the C

Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions

Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions PDF Author: Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1611210712
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
An award-winning historical study of the important role played by Union and Confederate horse soldiers on the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg. The Union army’s victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 3, 1863, is widely considered to have been the turning point in America’s War between the States. But the valuable contributions of the mounted troops, both Northern and Rebel, in the decisive three-day conflict have gone largely unrecognized. Acclaimed Civil War historian Eric J. Wittenberg now gives the cavalries their proper due. In Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions, Wittenberg explores three important mounted engagements undertaken during the battle and how they influenced the final outcome. The courageous but doomed response by Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth’s cavalry brigade in the wake of Pickett’s Charge is recreated in fascinating detail, revealing the fatal flaws in the general’s plan to lead his riders against entrenched Confederate infantry and artillery. The tenacious assault led by Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt on South Cavalry Field is also examined, as is the strategic victory at Fairfield by Southern troops that nearly destroyed the Sixth US Cavalry and left Hagerstown Road open, enabling General Lee’s eventual retreat. Winner of the prestigious Bachelder-Coddington Award for historical works concerning the Battle of Gettysburg, Eric J. Wittenberg’s Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions rights a long-standing wrong by lifting these all-important engagements out of obscurity. A must-read for Civil War buffs everywhere, it completes the story of the battle that changed American history forever.