Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7.
Frank Moore, Ed.

The enemy crossed the Rappahannock this morning at five o'clock, at the various fords from Beverly's to Kelly's, with a large force of cavalry, accompanied by infantry and artillery. After a severe contest, till five P. M., General Stuart drove them across the river.

The forces engaged on our side were Generals W. H. F. Lee's, Hampton's Legion, Jones's and Robertson's brigades, with the Beauregard battery from this city, and one other company of artillery. Our total force numbered about four thousand. The enemy had, it is estimated, about ten thousand cavalry, seven regiments of infantry, and six batteries, the whole under command of General Pleasanton.

The enemy commenced to cross the Rappahannock simultaneously at Beverly's and Kelly's Fords, and at other intermediate points, about daylight on Tuesday morning, both of their main columns pushing forward toward Brandy Station, five miles below Culpeper Court-House, with the design of getting in the rear of our forces, who were between the court-house and station. They captured our pickets, and thus prevented early [27] intelligence of their movements being reported. The fight commenced at seven o'clock, and about ten o'clock our forces were all brought in position, and from that time until two o'clock the fight raged with terrific fierceness, our men gradually driving the enemy before them toward the Rappahannock bridge. About two o'clock the enemy commenced retreating up the Rappahannock, when Colonel Munford, commanding Fitz Lee's brigade, whose camp was near Oak Shade, crossed the Hazel River and attacked them in their front. The fight continued to rage until six o'clock, when the discomfited enemy effected a recrossing of the Rappahannock at Beverly's and fords adjacent.

The enemy fought hand to hand for a time, but relied principally upon their cavalry, dismounted and used as infantry, and their artillery. Our brave troops made many desperate charges, and were often driven back by sheer force of numbers. They as often rallied, and finally succeeded in forcing the enemy to commence to retreat, leaving many of their dead and wounded in our hands.

Our losses are heavy, and among them some of our best officers. We took a large number of prisoners, three hundred and thirty-six of whom have already arrived, including two majors. Thirty prisoners also arrived at Richmond from Winchester. These were captured by the forces of General Albert G. Jenkins.

The cars on yesterday evening brought down three hundred and two prisoners of war, cavalrymen and artillerymen, captured by Stuart's cavalry in the fight near Brandy Station on Tuesday. Twelve of the number were commissioned officers — including one colonel, one major, and sundry captains and lieutenants. Twenty prisoners, captured in the Valley, accompanied those above named.

The bodies of Colonel Hampton, of Hampton's cavalry brigade, and Colonel Williams of South-Carolina, were received by the same train, and escorted by the Virginia State Guard to the capitol. It is to be conveyed South for sepulture. The gallant Colonel was one of the slain in the battle.

From passengers and other sources of information, we present the following details:

The cavalry of the enemy numbered, it is supposed, eight thousand to ten thousand. It was accompanied and supported by two thousand or three thousand dismounted men and artillery.

The enemy's force crossed in one place, it is said, at a ford prepared by them for the occasion. They thus eluded our pickets, got in their rear and captured them, and pressed on rapidly to our camps. This was at an early hour in the morning.

The First South-Carolina and Fourth Virginia, which were on picket, lost many men captured in these early operations.

The enemy's column next fell on General Jones's brigade, which they found in the act of forming, with guns and pistols not yet loaded. Taking them at this advantage, they pierced and broke our line, and forced our men to fall back. They gained so much ground as to capture General Stuart's headquarters, near Brandy; also Brandy Station, and, we understand, some stores there.

Our men, recovering from their surprise, now rapidly came forward and threw themselves, sabre in hand, upon the enemy. These were driven, in their turn, nearer to the river, with the loss of a number of prisoners, beside the killed and wounded.

The fight fluctuated throughout the day, lasting from five to five--twelve long hours. It was doubtless the severest and most extensive cavalry fight of the war. The scene lay chiefly on the farm owned by the late John S. Barbour, Sen. The enemy made much use of their sharp-shooters, who, from the shelter of the adjacent timber, did us considerable damage. But the hand-to-hand encounters of cavalry and the crossing of sabres were the principal features of the fight. Many of our own wounded bear the evidence of this on their persons; while the slain and wounded of the enemy prove it still more conspicuously. Our being caught with unloaded fire-arms, left them, indeed, no other resource at first.

During the conflict the enemy charged and captured our horse artillery; but it was quickly recaptured by the desperate determination of our troops. We learn that we amply retaliated afterward by capturing and holding a battery of four or five guns belonging to the enemy.

The battle at last settled decisively in our favor. The enemy, repulsed and driven at all points, fell back to the Rappahannock, and recrossed it.

We captured from them in the fight and on the retreat three hundred and two prisoners, already received in this city. Beside these, between fifty and sixty more were brought to Culpeper Court-House yesterday morning, and they were still coming.

Our own loss is variously stated. The information at the provost's office at Culpeper Court-House, yesterday morning, was that about two hundred of our men were prisoners. Our killed and wounded are supposed to reach several hundred. Some put the figures higher and some lower.

The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded is believed to be considerably greater than ours. This is usually the case with the army that is defeated.

Among our slain are Lieutenant-Colonel Hampton of General Hampton's brigade, and Colonel Saul Williams of the Second North-Carolina regiment. Colonel Butler of South-Carolina had his foot shot off, and has suffered amputation. General W. H. F. Lee received a painful but not dangerous flesh-wound in the thigh. He came down yesterday to Colonel Wickham's in Hanover. Colonel A. W. Harman of the Twelfth Virginia cavalry was wounded, but not seriously, in the neck. [28]

The forces engaged on our side were the brigades of Generals Hampton, W. H. F. Lee, and Jones.

We understand that the Yankees burned Kelly's Mill.

The fight, on the whole, may be said to have begun in a surprise and ended in a victory. The latter is what we are accustomed to hear of confederate soldiers; the former we trust never to hear again.

The more the circumstances of the late affair at Brandy Station are considered, the less pleasant do they appear. If this was an isolated case, it might be excused under the convenient head of accident or chance. But this much puffed cavalry of the army of Northern Virginia has been twice, if not three times, surprised since the battles of December, and such repeated accidents can be regarded as nothing but the necessary consequences of negligence and bad management. If the war was a tournament, invented and supported for the pleasure and profit of a few vain and weak-headed officers, these disasters might be dismissed with compassion. But the country pays dearly for the blunders which encourage the enemy to overrun and devastate the land with a cavalry which is daily learning to despise the mounted troops of the Confederacy. It is high time that this branch of the service should be reformed.

The surprise on this occasion was the most complete that has occurred. The confederate cavalry was carelessly strewn over the country, with the Rappahannock only between it and an enemy who has already proven his enterprise to our cost. It is said that their camp was supposed to be secure, because the Rappahannock was not believed to be fordable at the point where it was actually forded. What! do Yankees then know more about this river than our own soldiers, who have done nothing but ride up and down its banks for the last six months. They knew at least the weather was dry, the water low, and that fifteen or twenty thousand horse, confident from impunity and success, were on the other side. They could not have failed to know this much; and they were surprised, caught at breakfast, made prisoners on foot, with guns empty and horses grazing. Although the loss was insignificant, the events of that morning were among the least creditable that have occurred. Later some of the best officers sacrificed their lives to redeem the day. A very fierce fight ensued, in which, it is said, for the first time in this war, a considerable number of sabre-wounds were given and received. In the end the enemy retired, or was driven, it is not yet clearly known which, across the river. Nor is it certainly known whether the fortunate result was achieved by the cavalry alone or with the assistance of confederate infantry in the neighborhood. As the Southern troops remained masters of the field, and as they are believed to have taken at least as many prisoners toward the close of the day as they lost in the morning, they may be considered victors.

But it is a victory over which few will exult. It resembles that other victory won at Kelly's Ford on the seventeenth of March. Both would have been well merited defeats if valor had not paid the price of conceit and carelessness. The ease with which the enemy outwitted the guard of the river on the first occasion was the prompter of Stoneman's incursion at the head of ten thousand horse into the heart of the State, which he accomplished without the slightest interference from the confederate cavalry. It is with pain that these reflections are made. They occur at this moment, not only to the present writer, but also to the whole public, and their utterance may have a wholesome effect. Events of this description have been lately too frequent to admit of the supposition that they are the results of hazard. They are the effects of causes, which will produce like effects while they are permitted to operate, and they require the earnest attention both of the chiefs of the government and the heads of the army. The enemy is evidently determined to employ his cavalry extensively, and has spared no pains or cost to perfect that arm. The only effective means of preventing the mischief it may do is to reorganize our own forces, enforce a stricter discipline among the men, and insist on more earnestness among the officers in the discharge of their very important duty.