Saturday, June 09, 2007
This Day in American History
On this day in 1863, the Battle of Brandy Station was fought in Northern Virginia near the Rappahannock river. This was the most important battle between Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and the largest cavalry battle ever fought in North America. The Southern cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart and nearly 9,500 strong was surprised by 11,000 Yankee horse soldiers under Pleasonton. The battle raged for ten hour, and the Yankees retired at the end of the day, so it was technically a Southern victory; but it was remarkable that the Yankees fought well all day and gave the Rebs as good as they got. By even that time in the war the accuracy of the rifles made cavalry charges sort of like organized suicide and most cavalry soldiers rode to battle, dismounted and fought like infantry. Not that day--which was dashing charge with sabres and pistols the whole time. The Southern press was unimpressed with Stuart--not only for being surprised (the cavalry existed to prevent surprise)--but for not kicking butt and taking names as he had in nearly every engagement before that one. However, it was not so much Stuart's decline as the North's slow progress in getting cavalry units worth spit. Stuart's egotistical decline came about a month later in Pennsylvania.
Labels: American Civil War
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 12:06 AM 
