Brandy Station
Brandy Station, fought on June 9, 1863, opened the Army of Northern Virginia’s Gettysburg campaign and sent Union forces north in pursuit of Gen. Robert E. Lee and his forces. It was the largest cavalry battle ever fought on American soil, with nearly 20,000 troopers engaged and more than 1,000 casualties.
Historian Clark B. “Bud” Hall would state, “Ten thousand troopers grappled to the death on Fleetwood Hill. Scores of men were killed, right there,” Hall said in an interview. “And as J.E.B. Stuart wrote in his report, they ‘buried them where they fell.’”
Stuart, who pitched his headquarters tent there, went all out to retake the crucial high ground after being surprised when Northern cavalry swept across the Rapidan River.
Former CVBT Board member and Historian Robert K. Krick of Fredericksburg would stated, “Brandy Station has come a very long way since being on the brink of destruction some years ago—when first threatened with intense massive development, and then by a proposed high-speed auto-racing track,” Krick said in an interview. “Earlier preservation saved extensive tracts, but this new purchase covers the very core of the battlefield.”
In August, 2013 CVBT Received A Grant For $700,000 To Assist The Civil War Trust In A 56 Acre Acquisition Of Fleetwood Hill On The Brandy Station Battlefield.
The entire battlefield preservation community including the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground and the Brandy Station Foundation with support of the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Civil War Sites Preservation Fund had a hand in saving this long sought after parcel of Brandy Station battlefield.
“Preservation, It’s Chess, Not Checkers”, stated CVBT President Tom Van Winkle. So, some 11 years after CVBT’s contribution to help protect Fleetwood Hill, this chess piece is now part of Virginia’s 43rd State Park and the battlefield, now 1,000 acres and about to grow to 2,200 acres after a series of land transfers are completed, will include parts of the four major Civil War battles fought in Culpeper County: Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Kelly’s Ford, and Rappahannock Station.
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