The Confederates had intended for June 9, 1863, to be a day of maneuvering rather than fighting

Another fact about the battle is that the Confederates had intended for June 9, 1863, to be a day of maneuvering rather than fighting. Two of the army's three infantry corps were near Culpeper, six miles southwest of Brandy Station, preparing to advance up the Shenandoah Valley and into Pennsylvania. Major General J.E.B. Stuart was to screen this operation with his 9,500-man cavalry division at Brandy Station, while the entire infantry corps held the Union Army's attention at Fredericksburg, 35 miles southeast of Brandy Station.

The Federals were aware that Confederate cavalry was in the vicinity of Culpeper, but their intelligence had not obtained information on the substantial infantry force behind the horsemen. Major General Joseph Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac, interpreted the presence of enemy cavalry at Culpeper as preparations for a raid on his army's supply lines. As a result, he directed Brigadier General Alfred Pleasonton, commander of his Cavalry Corps, to break up Stuart's raid in its infancy.

The Confederates obviously did not anticipate any harassment from the enemy cavalry, for the day before the crucial screening operation, the Southern troops held a grand review for General Robert E. Lee at Inlet Station, just two miles southwest of Brandy Station.