The Battle of Brandy Station was America's largest cavalry battle

The Battle of Brandy Station, also known as the Battle of Fleetwood Hill, was the greatest cavalry of the American Civil War and the largest ever fought on American territory. It was fought on June 9, 1863, in Brandy Station, Virginia, at the start of the Gettysburg Campaign by Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton against Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. It was also the first fight of the most renowned campaign of the war, Gettysburg.

The 1863 fight began as a raid before daybreak when 5,500 Union cavalry stormed across the Rappahannock River in an attempt to forestall an impending Confederate raid on the Union supply line. The Confederate army, on the other hand, was on the move, breaking camp to ride north into Pennsylvania.

The skirmish swiftly evolved into an all-out cavalry clash involving 20,000 people, including 17,000 cavalries. Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and Union General John Buford fought to a draw. Although the Union advance was repulsed, the Confederate cavalry's previously overwhelming supremacy was gone.