East Cavalry Battlefield 1 863 at Brandy Station, Virginia
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TO BEGIN YOUR TOUR cavalry battle of the war fought on June 9, East Cavalry Battlefield 1 863 at Brandy Station, Virginia. Brandy Station was the opening clash of the Get From the Traffic Circle in the center of Get tysburg Campaign. GETTYSBURG tysburg, follow York Rood to Pennsylvania NATIONAL MILITARY Route 116 East, exactly 3.5 miles. Turn left NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Union troopers of General John Buford's PARK (watch for on-coming traffic) at the brown Division opened the Battle of Gettysburg National Pork Service sign "East Cavalry against Confederate infantry of General Field" and stop at the second monument: For further reading on the Cavalry: Heth's Division on July 1st. The cavalrymen Battery M, 2nd US Artillery (Pennington's) were limited by their numbers and the Coddington, Edwin B., The Gettysburg (Stop 1) moderate range of the carbines they car Campaign. A Study in Command. Charles 'If you wanf to see a good time, ried, but were able to deter the Confeder Scribner's Sons, New York, 1968 'fine the cavalry!" ate skirmishers for a few hours until Union infantry arrived. While the armies did bat Longacre, Edward G., The Cavalry at Get» The role of the cavalry at the beginning of tle around Gettysburg, cavalry units skir tvsburg: A Tactical Study of Mounted the Civil War was very limited. Horsemen of mished in Hunterstown, Pennsylvania, and Operations during the Civil War's Pivotal both armies were initially limited to patrolling on several roads east of town. Campaign. 9June-14 July 1863. Univ. of and scouting, guarding supply trains and rail Nebraska Press, 1988 roads, and providing escorts to generals. Confederate cavalrymen traveled lighter They were only used in battle as shock troops, McPherson, James, Battle Crv of Freedom. than their Union counterparts and were not a tactic which dated back to the Romans. A Oxford Press, 1988 usually armed with the more modern car favorite jibe from the Infantry was: "Did you bines. Short, muzzle-loading carbines were ever see a dead cavalryman?"The foot sol Sears, Stephen W., Gettysburg. Houghton more common in southern regiments, Includ diers believed the cavalry to be "dandies on Mifflin Company, Boston & New York, ing imports from England. Some Southern horseback" who never saw much fighting and 2003 troopers preferred to leave their sabers always had the easy life. Certainly, the dash behind and carried extra pistols instead of Trudeau, Noah Andre, Gettysburg. A Test and spirit of the more flamboyant cavalry sabers, for close work. Southern arsenals ing of Courage. Harper Collins Publishers, leaders provided the newspapers with many attempted to mass produce breech loading new York, 2002 stories of harrowing rides and gallant duels in carbines, even making copies of Union car the saddle. bines made by the Sharps Rifle Company. Tucker, Glenn, High Tide At Gettysburg. Attempts at mass production of the weapon The Campaign in Pennsylyania. Bobbs- Southern troopers commanded by General failed and southern cavalrymen relied upon Merrill Co., New York, 1958 J.E.B. Stuart had the grandest reputations of a varied stock of captured and imported being the best horsemen, ready to ride on a arms. Wert, Jeffrey D., Gettysburg Day Three. raid at a moments notice or rush to the front Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001 to do battle just as the tide was beginning to turn. Of course, truth was very different from http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/ the romantic descriptions of newspapermen. On July 3, 1 863, in an effort to threaten soldierlife/covalry.htm Soldiering on horseback was a hard life with the Union Center, Confederate General plenty of danger. The cavalry's military role Jeb Stuart attempted to lead his Cavalry http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/ had dramatically changed by 1863 and the getttour/maln-ms.htm troops around Gettysburg from west of armies were making use of their horse sol town in a sweeping arc to behind the Union diers in more combat situations. Cavalry divi 1st, 5th, 6th & 7th Michigan Cavalry line. This would be known as the battle of sions were utilized by commanders as ad- Custer Avenue, East Cavalry Field East Cavalry Field. vonce scouts and as a mobile fighting force. Insignia of the US Cavalry These new strategies culminated in the largest .