Battle of Kelly's Ford

Coordinates: 38°28′37″N 77°46′48″W / 38.476921°N 77.779880°W / 38.476921; -77.779880
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Battle of Kelly's Ford
Part of the American Civil War

Plan showing battleground and cavalry fight, March 17, 1863, Kelly's Ford, Virginia.
DateMarch 17, 1863 (1863-03-17)
Location
Culpeper County, Virginia
Fauquier County, Virginia
Result Inconclusive[1]
Belligerents
United States United States (Union) Confederate States of America CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
William W. Averell Fitzhugh Lee
Strength
2,100 [2] 800 [2]
Casualties and losses
78 total
6 killed
50 wounded
22 missing		 133 total
11 dead
88 wounded
34 captured

The Battle of Kelly's Ford, also known as the Battle of Kellysville or Kelleysville,

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.

Background

When

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.
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

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]

Battle

Map of Kelly's Ford Battlefield core and study areas by the American Battlefield Protection Program.

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 7:30 a.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,

2nd Virginia) had fled in the face of a Union charge.[4]

Lee's men advanced with the five regiments in line abreast. 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 5:30 p.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

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 (5.5 km2) 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]

Notes

  1. ^ U.S. National Park Service, Heritage Preservation Services, CWSAC Battle Summaries; Kelly's Ford or Kellysville, Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  2. ^ a b CWSAC Report Update
  3. ^ "Battle Detail - the Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)".
  4. ^ a b c d Salmon, pp. 165-67.
  5. ^ Fitzhugh Lee, Brandy Station Foundation
  6. ^ a b c d e Blumberg, pp. 1111-12; Eicher, p. 451.
  7. ^ a b Brandy Station Foundation, Maryland Scroll
  8. Gettysburg Confederate order of battle
  9. ^ Eicher, pp. 450-52.
  10. ^ William Averell, Brandy Station Foundation
  11. ^ Blumberg, p. 1112; Eicher, p. 452.
  12. ^ Wittenberg, p. 135
  13. ^ Wittenberg, p. 137
  14. ^ Denison, p. 213.
  15. ^ [1] American Battlefield Trust "Saved Land" webpage. Accessed May 25, 2018.
  16. ^ [2] American Battlefield Trust Kelly's Ford Battlefield page. Accessed May 29, 2018.

References

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Battle of Kelly's Ford.

38°28′37″N 77°46′48″W / 38.476921°N 77.779880°W / 38.476921; -77.779880

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