Dr Beverly Ford: Fill & Download for Free

Short answer: At the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest mounted conflict in the western hemisphere, the Federal cavalry proved it was fully the equal of that of the South. Stuart had been caught napping, but not without his amazing genius for tactics. The criticism and second-guessing surrounding Stuart would reach a fury after the Pennsylvania Campaign, never fully to subside. More importantly, the federals discovered the intended and imminent invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania through the Confederate dispatches captured at Brandy Station.In spite of hardships and privations, the Confederate cavalry had excellent morale throughout the war. Morale grew and remained high for the best of reasons: unbroken and often spectacular success, brilliant leadership, and exploits that struck the imagination. It was far otherwise for the Federal horsemen. It was apparent to the men themselves that they were being wasted and their efforts frittered away in employment that gave them no chance to perform creditably. There is only a scant record of cavalry engagements above the level of mere skirmishes in which the Federal horsemen were not worsted before the summer of 1863.The spring reorganization of 1863 was the start of a new era for the Federal cavalry. It began to prove itself in a succession of engagements: Kelly's Ford, Brandy Station, Buford's fight on the first day at Gettysburg, and Gregg's and Custer’s on the third day. There were failures still, failures of leadership for the most part, but no longer did the Confederate riders automatically have the better of the Federals. There was a new spirit in the air, and both the Confederate and the Federal cavalry knew it.Brandy Station—Fleetwood HillGeneral R.E. Lee began his movement of the ANV northward toward Pennsylvania on 3 June 1863, just one month after the battle of Chancellorsville. From this moment to the time that the ANV concentrated in the vicinity of Gettysburg, its operations were both rapid and energetic. Pursuing his design of maneuvering the Federal army out of Virginia, without coming to action, Lee first sent forward one division and then another to watch the enemy. Seeing that they seemingly intended to observe rather than attack, he continued the withdrawal of his own troops by way of Culpepper in the direction of the lower Shenandoah Valley.On 8 June, the day of the arrival of Lee's head of column in Culpepper, a review of Stuart's cavalry took place in a field east of the courthouse. The review was a picturesque affair. General R.E. Lee was present sitting his horse motionlessly on a little knoll overlooking the Rappahannock River. The long column of about 8,000 cavalry was drawn up in line and passed in front of Lee at a gallop. Stuart and his staff-officers led the charge with sabers drawn and points advanced, a species of military display highly attractive to the gallant young Stuart. The men then charged in mimic battle the guns of the Horse-Artillery, which were posted upon an adjoining hill, the artillerists receiving them with a thunderous discharge of blank ammunition, which rolled like the roar of actual battle among the surrounding hills. This sham-fight was kept up for some time.On the next morning, two divisions of Federal cavalry supported by two brigades of Yankee infantry were sent across the river at Kelly's and Beverley's Fords, east of the court-house, to beat up Stuart’s quarters and camps. This reconnaissance in force—the Federal numbers probably amounting to fifteen thousand—had no objective other than to discover if General Lee had infantry in Culpepper. To facilitate matters General Joseph Hooker, commanding the Army of the Potomac, ordered the cavalry pickets relieved of their duties along the Rappahannock and replaced with infantry. Lee had indeed moved a body of infantry in the direction of the field of action, but the infantry was not engaged on either side, making this the largest mounted battle of the war.Battle of Brandy Station—the largest mounted battle in North America (Period Sketch, LOC). “Here, at last, were two forces of cavalry, on favorable ground, all mounted, struggling for victory with saber and pistol. Brigade met brigade, and the blue and the gray met in hand-to-hand strife, and many gallant horsemen went down that day on a field whose glories have not often been surpassed.”Major Gen. Alfred Pleasonton had organized a combined-armed Union force into two "wings," under John Buford and David Gregg, augmented by infantry brigades from the V Corps. Buford's wing, accompanied by Pleasonton, consisted of the 1st Cavalry Division, a Reserve Brigade led by Major Charles J. Whiting, and an infantry brigade of 3,000 men under Brig. Gen. Adelbert Ames. David Gregg's wing of 4000 men consisted of the 2nd Cavalry Division, led by Col. Alfred N. Duffié and the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, the 3rd Cavalry Division, led by Gregg, and an infantry brigade under Brig. Gen. David A. Russell.For the operations, Pleasonton designated George A. Custer to be the Officer of the Day. Custer would accompany Buford’s force across Beverly Ford. Although significantly different in age, Custer and Pleasonton were great friends. Both were extreme self-promoters. The night before the battle, Custer wrote to his step-sister giving directions for the disposition of his personal effects should he fall in the upcoming fight.One of Stuart's Confederate brigades, near Beverley's Ford, was nearly surprised and resolutely attacked at daylight by Gen. John Buford's division, which succeeded in forcing back the brigade a short distance toward a high range called Fleetwood Hill, in the rear. From this eminence, where his headquarters were established, Stuart went to the front at a gallop, opened a determined fire of artillery and sharp-shooters upon the advancing enemy, and sent Hampton's division to attack them on their left. During the fight, the firing of the horse artillery had been quite regular, but not very rapid, and directed nearly all the time at the skirmishers of the enemy and the masses concealed in the woods.“Grumble” Jones' Southern brigade, awakened by the sound of nearby gunfire, had ridden to the scene of the initial attack partially dressed and often riding bareback. They struck Buford's leading brigade, commanded by Col. Benjamin F. Davis, near a bend in the Beverly's Ford Road and temporarily checked its progress. Davis was killed, but his attack had been stopped at St. James Church just short of where the Stuart Horse Artillery (Hart’s Battery) was encamped and vulnerable to capture.Custer, along with an orderly named Joseph Fought, had ridden with Davis’ leading regiments, the 8th New York Cavalry and the 8th Illinois Cavalry, which had run into the camp of the 6th Virginia Cavalry. Fought remembered “Custer and I crossed the ford and took the inside of the field. There were two or three Rebels near the woods, but we clipped along towards them and they fired at us and we fired back. We rode on through the woods and met our advance guard, Col. Davis and his command, and reported to him. All at once we saw the Rebels coming in a body, full speed and we met them in the narrow road. One rode straight up to Colonel Davis and shot him dead.” Davis had incautiously charged ahead sword in hand, and Lt. R.O. Allen (CSA) charging forward had fired three bullets from his pistol directly at Davis’ from close range, one hitting him in the forehead and killing him instantly.The bulk of the action centered on Yew Ridge and involved Custer. After Davis’ death, Custer—asserting his freedom as a staff officer—had decided to ride with the 2nd US Cavalry commanded by his former West Point classmate, Captain Wesley Merritt. There is no known documentation of what Custer did from this point, but it seems that he led several charges and countercharges both against the Confederate guns of Captain James F. Hart at the church and against the Southern mounted horsemen. Anecdote claims that Custer had two horses shot from under him, and rallied Davis’ dismounted men who had taken position among the timber. It seems certain that although there were officers on the field that were his official superiors, Custer became the defacto leader of the Federal troops in his immediate area.While some historians consider these stories unfounded, in his report of the battle, Pleasonton stated that Custer was “conspicuous for gallantry throughout the fight.” There is no question that Custer somehow distinguished himself during the fight around St. James Church. Hence the praise applied to him and battle honors awarded to him by Pleasonton after the engagement. As “Rooney” Lee withdrew, he left the 9th Virginia Cavalry to cover his retreat. Reaching the area around St. James Church, the Virginians suddenly turned and engaged the 2nd US and 6th Pennsylvania cavalry. Driving back the Confederates, Merritt led his regiment onward, only to run into the 2nd North Carolina along with the 10th and 13th Virginia cavalry which had been sent back by Lee. The resulting combat saw Lee and Merritt personally engage in a brief hand to hand duel. Overwhelmed by the Confederates, the Regulars wisely withdrew.James Ewell Brown Stuart (JEB)The fight on Yew Ridge was the last action Custer would experience that day. To show his appreciation and respect, Pleasonton gave Custer the honor of delivering the captured flag of the 12th Virginia Cavalry to army headquarters.Meanwhile, the enemy was executing a rapid and dangerous movement against Stuart's rear. Brig. Gen. David Gregg, commanding the second Federal cavalry division, crossed at Kelly's Ford, passed the force left in that quarter, and came in directly on Stuart's rear, behind Fleetwood Hill. In the midst of the hard fight in front, Stuart was called now to defend his rear. He hastened to do so by falling back and meeting the enemy now charging the hill. The attack was repulsed, and the enemy's artillery was charged in turn by the Southerners. These were captured and recaptured two or three times, but at last the guns remained in the hands of Stuart.General Gregg now swung round to his right, and prepared to advance along the eastern slope of Fleetwood Hill. Stuart had, however, posted his artillery there, and, as the Federal line began to move, stopped it with a sudden and destructive fire of shell. At the same time, Wade Hampton ordered a portion of his division, under the brave Georgian, Pierce Young, to charge the enemy. The assault was promptly made with the saber, unaided by carbine or pistol fire, and Young routed the force in front of him, which dispersed in disorder toward the river. The dangerous assault on the rear of Fleetwood Hill was thus repulsed.The advance of the enemy on the left, near the river, met with the same ill success. “Rooney” Lee, son of the commanding general, gallantly charged them in that quarter, and drove them back to the Rappahannock, receiving a severe wound, which would long confine him to his bed. (Chambliss replaced him). Hampton, however, had followed the retreating enemy on the right, under the fire of Stuart's guns from Fleetwood Hill; and by nightfall the whole Federal force had re-crossed the Rappahannock, leaving several hundred dead and wounded upon the field.At Brandy Station, Stuart was clearly caught off guard, and he relied on Hampton's regiments to stem the tide of Federals on his right. Later in the day, Hampton advanced in amazing order with four regiments and horse artillery carrying strategic Fleetwood Hill. The enemy recoiled before the South Carolinian. His charge thrilled the veterans who watched as he drove the Federals back. Hampton was never excitable and was repeatedly noted for coolness by his contemporaries. In the fight, Hampton lost his brother, Frank. His grief was great but controlled. Reportedly, Hampton blamed the loss of his brother on the collapse of the 4th Virginia. “But for the fact that … the command of Colonel [William C.] Wickham broke and ran, my brother Frank Hampton would not have been killed that day.” Of Stuart's command failures at Brandy Station, Hampton wrote his sister: "Stuart managed badly that day, but I would not say so publicly."There was no love lost between Hampton and Stuart. Hampton’s command was composed mainly of regiments from North and South Carolina, with a scattering of troopers from Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and other states. He often referred to his command as “Southern Cavalry,” wrote that the “Virginia Cavalry” should be kept by itself while the Southern Cavalry could form a wholly separate organization. Quite conscious of being a South Carolinian (allegiance to state rather than to confederation being common), Hampton continually concerned himself with the apparent prominence of Virginians in the leadership of the army. Stuart, for his part, usually pitched his tent near fellow Virginian and West Pointer Fitzhugh Lee and left Hampton to his own devices. Although he was generally satisfied with Stuart's leadership, Hampton felt that Stuart slighted the accomplishments of his Carolina men in favor of the more numerous Virginians. “I suppose Stuart, will as usual give all the credit to the Virginia Brigades,” he wrote to his sister. “He praises them on all occasions, but does not often give us any credit.”The biggest stir in cavalry camps at the time was the criticism of Stuart that was appearing in the Southern press. Richmond diarist John Jones noted on June 12, “The surprise of Stuart ... has chilled every heart … the question is on every tongue—have our generals relaxed in vigilance.” Stuart fared no better in the North. Editors who had used the cavalier’s success at First Manassas as a rallying cry to encourage the development of the North’s mounted arm enjoyed the turn of events. Lorenzo Crounse, writing for the New York Times crowed, “Poor gasconading Jeb is in a bad way at the hands of his friends.” The criticism and second-guessing surrounding Stuart would reach a fury after the Pennsylvania Campaign, never fully to subside.Report of Maj. R. F. Beckham, C. S. Army, commanding Horse Artillery, of engagement at Brandy Station. Accessed June 2013/ URL: http://gettysburg.civilwarreference.com/report.php?reportID=348Suggested readings:Bending the Bow of Ulysses: Wade Hampton's Southern Cavalry (Traditional American History Series): James M Volo: 9781490582801: Amazon.com: BooksCuster's Civil War Cavalry: Forged by Fire, United by Will (Traditional American History Series) (Volume 8): Dr. James M. Volo: 9781492865414: Amazon.com: Books

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