The Battle of Kelly's Ford, also known as the Battle of Kellysville or Kelleysville,[3] took place on March 17, 1863, in Culpeper County, Virginia, as part of the cavalry operations along the Rappahannock River during the American Civil War. It set the stage for Brandy Station and other cavalry actions of the Gettysburg Campaign that summer. Twenty-one hundred troopers of Brig. Gen.William W. Averell's Union cavalry division crossed the Rappahannock to attack the Confederate cavalry that had been harassing them that winter. Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee counterattacked with a brigade of about 800 men. After achieving a localized success, Union forces withdrew under pressure in late afternoon, without destroying Lee's cavalry.
When Maj. Gen.Ambrose Burnside was relieved of command of the Union's Army of the Potomac (following the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 and the fiasco of his Mud March in January 1863), his replacement, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, immediately began reorganizing and training his army, in winter quarters outside of Fredericksburg. One of his most significant actions was to combine smaller cavalry units, spread out across the army, into a single Cavalry Corps, led by Maj. Gen. George Stoneman. Up until this time, the Union cavalry had been consistently outperformed by their Confederate counterparts, commanded by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. Although they possessed superior equipment and had the advantage of a plentiful supply of men and federal horses, the Union cavalrymen had lacked the confidence, experience, and leadership to challenge Stuart.[4] On February 25, 1863, Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, one of Stuart's key subordinates and a nephew of Gen. Robert E. Lee, led a force of 400 troopers in a raid near Hartwood Church in Stafford County, 9 miles northwest of Fredericksburg. The federal cavalry was ineffective in pursuing Lee and managed to lose 150 prisoners from the division of Brig. Gen. William W. Averell, one of Fitz Lee's closest friends at West Point. Hooker was furious and threatened to relieve Stoneman of his command if he did not stop Confederate raids of this type.[4]
At the same time, Fitzhugh Lee was sending his old friend and classmate taunting messages across the river. One of the more challenging messages said "I wish you would put up your sword, leave my state, and go home. You ride a good horse, I ride a better. If you won't go home, return my visit, and bring me a sack of coffee.".[5]
Scouts from Averell's 2nd Division, Cavalry Corps, detected Confederate cavalry near Culpeper Court House about three weeks later. Averell assembled a force of 3,000 cavalrymen and six artillery pieces (the 6th Battery, New York Light Artillery, under Captain Joseph W. Martin) and set off for Kelly's Ford on the Rappahannock River between Fauquier and Culpeper Counties. After various troops were detached to cover his movements and to engage the enemy's pickets at Rappahannock Station, he had 2,100 men ready for battle in three brigades, commanded by Col.Alfred N. Duffié, Col. John B. McIntosh, and Capt.Marcus Reno. Facing him was a detached Confederate brigade commanded by Fitzhugh Lee, 800 men in five regiments, with a two-gun artillery section.[6]
The "Maryland Scroll," a graffiti on the wall of the "Graffiti House," in Brandy Station, Virginia, contains the names of 16 Maryland Confederates who served rifled gun #1 of James Breathed's Battery and were on picket duty in Brandy Station on March 16, 1863. The unfurling banner (also known as the horizontal scroll) reads: "Rifle Gun" and "No. 1, Stuart Horse Artillery / Breathed's Battery / On Picket - March 16, 1863."[7][8] Breathed's Battery was heavily engaged at the battle on the next day.[7]
Early on the morning of March 17, 1863, Averell's advance guard reached Kelly's Ford on the Rappahannock and found that felled trees and 60 Confederate sharpshooters opposed their crossing. Three attempts to cross were repulsed under heavy fire, delaying the Union advance by over 90 minutes. Averell's chief of staff, Major Samuel E. Chamberlain, eventually forced a crossing led by 20 men of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry. Chamberlain was wounded in the head. Despite the minor casualties in this action, Averell proceeded cautiously, taking over two hours to cross his men over the swiftly running river.[9]
Lee, 10 miles west at Culpeper Court House, was notified of the crossing attempts by 7:30a.m. Assuming that Averell's target was Brandy Station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, Lee sent his 800 men forward to block the Union advance. They encountered the Union cavalrymen deployed near the C.T. Wheatley house, about 2 miles northwest of Kelly's Ford. Duffié's brigade was positioned on the left in a woodlot, McIntosh's in the center, and Reno's two regiments of regulars on the right, behind a stone fence.[6]
Jeb Stuart also happened to be at Culpeper Court House that day, attending a court-martial. He decided to ride out to witness the battle, taking with him his artillery chief, Maj.John Pelham. They arrived to find that Lee's men were not doing well, outnumbered two to one and facing a well-positioned artillery battery. It was the first time in the war that a Confederate cavalry regiment (the 2nd Virginia) had fled in the face of a Union charge.[4]
Lee's men advanced with the five regiments in line abreast. The 3rd and 5th Virginia Cavalry regiments, led by sharpshooters, ran along the stone fence with the expectation they would find a gap in it somewhere. Pelham moved forward with Lee's men, and as he waved them through a gate in the fence, a shell exploded over his head, sending a tiny fragment of shrapnel into his brain, mortally wounding him. He died a few hours later. The Confederate advance was repulsed by carbine fire from the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry and shelling from Martin's battery.[6]
On the Union left, Duffié disobeyed Averell's orders to hold his position and ordered a charge. The surprise attack forced Lee to withdraw his men back through the woods to a clearing just behind. Lee counterattacked the advancing Union troopers, but once again had to fall back in the face of superior numbers and artillery. A rout of the Confederate position might have been possible, but Reno did not advance in support of Duffié, maintaining his position as ordered earlier by Averell.[6]
Aftermath
An illustration of the battle from the 1863 Harpers
By 5:30p.m., Averell, citing his exhausted men and horses, "deemed it proper to withdraw." He left two Confederate officers who had been wounded and captured by Averell's troops, a sack of coffee, and the following message: "Dear Fitz, Here's your coffee. Here's your visit. How do you like it?"[10] Some of his fellow officers believed that he lost his nerve, concerned about the presence of Jeb Stuart on the battlefield and, hearing the sound of railroad cars approaching, imagining the possibility of a Confederate infantry force pinning him against the river. The Union advance had covered 2 miles over more than 12 hours and resulted in 78 casualties (6 killed, 50 wounded, 22 missing). The Confederates lost 133 (11 dead, 88 wounded, 34 captured); 71 Confederate horses were killed and 12 were captured. The loss of the youthful Pelham, age 24, well respected by Robert E. Lee, Stuart, and many veterans of the Battle of Fredericksburg, was a shock. Stuart wrote after the battle, "The gallant Pelham—so noble, so true—will be mourned by the nation."[11]
There were men in our lines who were engaged at Malvern Hill, at Gaines Mill, in many of Jackson's Battles, and with one accord they say that they never passed through such a fearful fire as thinned our ranks in that charge.
The Richmond Whig, March 1863.
The Battle of Kelly's Ford proved to be a significant moral victory for Union forces. Prior to the battle, Stuart's horsemen had been successfully raiding the Union position for months, causing Union morale, especially that of its cavalry units, to plummet. The Federal cavalry's ability to hold its own against its Confederate counterpart for the first time in the war completely reversed such sentiments.[12] Union forces, encouraged by this victory, would proceed into the 1863 summer campaigns with increased confidence.[4][6] However, Confederate forces were able to achieve a tactical victory due to Averell's failure to convert his defensive success and untimely withdrawal, which left Lee's brigade in possession of the battlefield.[13] One of the participants, Lt. Joseph A. Chedell of the 1st Rhode Island, wrote that Kelly's Ford was the "first real, and perhaps the most brilliant, cavalry fight of the whole war."[14]
Both Union and Confederate armies used Kelly's Ford extensively during the Civil War. In addition to the role it played in this battle, it was also host to two notable engagements that occurred later that same year: the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, and one during the Bristoe Campaign's Second Battle of Rappahannock Station on November 7, 1863.
Battlefield preservation
The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved 1,370 acres (5.5km2) of the battlefield in five separate acquisitions since 2006.[15] The well-preserved cavalry battlefield is on the south bank of the Rappahannock River within the C.F. Phelps Wildlife Management Area and includes hiking trails, interpretive markers and the "Gallant Pelham" memorial to Maj. John Pelham, the distinguished Confederate artillery officer who was mortally wounded at age 24 during the March 17 battle at Kelly's Ford and died the next day.[16]
James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart was a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use of cavalry in support of offensive operations. While he cultivated a cavalier image, his serious work made him the trusted eyes and ears of Robert E. Lee's army and inspired Southern morale.
The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign.
The Battle of Brandy Station, also called the Battle of Fleetwood Hill, was the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the American Civil War, as well as the largest ever to take place on American soil. It was fought on June 9, 1863, around Brandy Station, Virginia, at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign by the Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton against Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry.
The Second Battle of Rappahannock Station took place on November 7, 1863, near the village of Rappahannock Station, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.
The Graffiti House, located at 19484 Brandy Road in the eastern end of the town of Brandy Station, Virginia, is believed by the Brandy Station Foundation to have been built in 1858. It is one of few dwellings in the village built before the American Civil War to survive intact to this day. The house is notable because of the Civil War era graffiti on many of the walls. The graffiti found includes names, drawings, names of units, and inscriptions left by soldiers.
The First Battle of Rappahannock Station, as took place on August 23, 1862, at present-day Remington, Virginia, as part of the Northern Virginia Campaign of the American Civil War.
The Gettysburg campaign was a military invasion of Pennsylvania by the main Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee in summer 1863. It was the first time during the war the Confederate Army attempted a full-scale invasion of a free state. The Union won a decisive victory at Gettysburg, July 1–3, with heavy casualties on both sides. Lee managed to escape back to Virginia with most of his army. It was a turning point in the American Civil War, with Lee increasingly pushed back toward Richmond until his surrender in April 1865. The Union Army of the Potomac was commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and then by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
William Edmondson "Grumble" Jones was a Confederate cavalry general with a reputation for being a martinet to his troopers and fractious toward superiors, but acknowledged to be a good commander. After disagreements of a personal nature with J.E.B. Stuart, Jones's brigade was set to guarding supply lines and unavailable during a crucial juncture of the Gettysburg Campaign when Lee suffered from a lack of capable reconnaissance cavalry. As the personality clash between Jones and Stuart escalated, Jones faced charges for impertinence, and was transferred to separate him from Stuart. Jones was killed leading a counter-attack in the 1864 Battle of Piedmont.
Fitzhugh Lee was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish–American War. He was the son of Sydney Smith Lee, a captain in the Confederate States Navy, and the nephew of Robert E. Lee.
The Battle of Mine Run, also known as Payne's Farm, or New Hope Church, or the Mine Run campaign, was conducted in Orange County, Virginia, in the American Civil War.
The Bristoe campaign was a series of minor battles fought in Virginia during October and November 1863, in the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, began to maneuver in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lee countered with a turning movement, which caused Meade to withdraw his army back toward Centreville. Lee struck at Bristoe Station on October 14, but suffered losses in two brigades and withdrew. As Meade followed south once again, the Union army smashed a Confederate defensive bridgehead at Rappahannock Station on November 7 and drove Lee back across the Rapidan River. Along with the infantry battles, the cavalry forces of the armies fought at Auburn on October 13, again at Auburn on October 14, and at Buckland Mills on October 19.
The Battle of Haw's Shop or Enon Church was fought on May 28, 1864, in Hanover County, Virginia, as part of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Trevilian Station was fought on June 11–12, 1864, in Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan fought against Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gens. Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee in the bloodiest and largest all-cavalry battle of the war.
John Pelham was a Confederate cavalry soldier under J. E. B. Stuart during the American Civil War. Robert E. Lee called Pelham "The Gallant Pelham" for his use of light artillery at the Battle of Fredericksburg to delay U.S. soldiers.
The First Battle of Auburn was fought on October 13, 1863, between Union infantry and Confederate cavalry forces at the start of the Bristoe Campaign during the American Civil War. A Union infantry column stumbled upon a Confederate cavalry reconnaissance party and a short, inconclusive fight ensued. The Confederate cavalry withdrew in the face of the superior Union force, but a much larger body of Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, attempting to raid a Union wagon train became entrapped by the column, forcing them to abandon the raid and hide in a ravine overnight awaiting Confederate infantry to come to their aid.
The Second Battle of Auburn was fought on October 14, 1863, in Fauquier County, Virginia, between Union and Confederate forces in the American Civil War. Confederate forces led by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell led a sortie to extricate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry command, trapped between two Union columns and clashed with the rearguard of the Federal II Corps under Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren. Stuart was successfully extricated but the Federal wagon train avoided Confederate capture in the inconclusive fight.
The Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia was an organized unit of cavalry in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Starting out as a brigade in late 1861, becoming a division in 1862 and finally a Corps in 1863; it served in the Eastern Theater until the ANV's surrender in April 1865.
The Fight at Monterey Pass (or Gap) was an American Civil War military engagement beginning the evening of July 4, 1863, during the Retreat from Gettysburg. A Confederate wagon train of Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, withdrew after the Battle of Gettysburg, and Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick attacked the retreating Confederate column. After a lengthy delay in which a small detachment of Maryland cavalrymen delayed Kilpatrick's division, the Union cavalrymen captured numerous Confederate prisoners and destroyed hundreds of wagons.
Timeline of Fauquier County, Virginia in the Civil War
References
Blumberg, Arnold D. "Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN0-393-04758-X.
Longacre, Edward G. Lee's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of Northern Virginia. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002. ISBN0-8117-0898-5.
Longacre, Edward G. Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000. ISBN0-8117-1049-1.
Starr, Stephen Z. The Union Cavalry in the Civil War. Vol. 1, From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg 1861–1863. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981. ISBN978-0-8071-3291-3.
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