Though the Battle of Brandy Station is known as the largest cavalry battle of the American Civil War, the aftermath of the battle is frequently overlooked

It is a fact that though the Battle of Brandy Station is known as the largest cavalry battle of the American Civil War, the aftermath of the battle is frequently overlooked. Union casualties totaled 907 (69 killed, 352 wounded, and 486 missings, mostly taken); Confederate casualties totaled 523. This was the largest mainly cavalry fight of the war, involving around 20,500 soldiers. Rooney Lee, Robert E. Lee's son, was among the victims, having been gravely wounded in the thigh. On June 26, he was apprehended at Hickory Hill, an estate near Hanover Court House.

The fields suffered significant losses of soldiers, horses, and mortars, and they were no strangers to the armies of blue and grey. On June 9, 1863, almost 20,000 horsemen clashed on fields and hillsides just northeast of Culpeper, Virginia. Almost 1,500 troops were killed, captured, injured, or went missing as a result of the battle. Captain William W. Blackford, an assistant to General J.E.B Stuart, remembered the devastation, saying afterward, "Fleetwood Hill was covered so thickly after the battle with dead horses and men that there was no room to pitch the tents among them". Morris Schaff, a Union soldier, would later describe an evening spent on the Brandy Station battlefield, saying, "my tent at the station, pitched after dark and partly floored, I discovered later was over the grave of someone who had fallen in those repeated charges."

In the hours following the battle, Confederate troops set to work burying friend and foe alike, precisely where they fell. Men were buried on the battlefields where they had fought. A fortunate handful was later transported to the Culpeper National Cemetery, where they rest beside their comrades who died in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Trevillian's Station, and Gordonsville. Many people's identities are unknown.