The Forgotten Bristoe Campaign's Final Conflict Was The Battle Of Rappahannock Station

The first fact in the list of facts about the battle of Rappahannock Station is that the forgotten bristoe campaign's final conflict was the battle of Rappahannock Station. The Bristoe campaign was a series of minor engagements in Virginia in the months of October and November 1863. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the direction of Major General George G. Meade, started to move in an effort to overthrow General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Meade withdrew his troops back toward Centreville as Lee reacted with a wheeling maneuver. On October 14, Lee attacked Bristoe Station, but he lost two troops and withdrew.

While the nation's attention was diverted to the Western Theater by the Battle of Chickamauga and subsequent action in the area of Chattanooga, Union and Confederate soldiers in the East were engaged in combat in the months that followed the Battle of Gettysburg. Gen. Robert E. Lee launched an offensive in October 1863 in an effort to break the standstill in Virginia. The Army of the Potomac was driven out of Culpeper and Fauquier counties, and the offensive culminated on October 14 with the Battle of Bristoe Station. Following the decisive Confederate defeat at Bristoe, Lee's soldiers withdrew, followed by the Federals who were under pressure from Washington. The Federals learned that the Confederates had erected a defensive line at the Rappahannock River, centered around the hamlet of Rappahannock Station, when General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac finally caught up with Lee. On November 7, Union forces attacked the Confederate position at Kelly's Ford and Rappahannock Station, forcing the Confederates to flee to the Rapidan River.